Originally this building housed a gas station and offices erected for one of the subsidiary and successor companies continuing in the name of Standard Oil (one inscription is still visible on the north elevation) after that company’s dissolution in 1911. Dressed in Renaissance Revival garb, the modern fireproof structure was the grandest service station in downtown Savannah. It diverged from the others by incorporating the drive-through area into the body of the building rather than setting it under an attached canopy. Glazed terra-cotta blocks mimic rusticated masonry with an elegantly bracketed cornice and metal sash windows set in delicate spiral colonette decoration. The 1985 renovation included excavating the underground gas tanks beneath the porte-cochere, revealing the subterranean brick walls and stairs of an earlier building, and leaving the space as a sunken court, which was covered over to restore its drive-through use for a bank in 2005.
You are here
Lott and Barber (Standard Oil Station)
1924; 1985 restoration and renovation, Lominack Associates, PC; 2005 restoration, Lott and Barber. 110 E. President St.
If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.
SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.